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L. HOLLMAN.

RUG AND CARPET'CLEANING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED IUNE Z, 1916, RENEWED MAY 31.1917.

Patented July 8, 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

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L. HULLMAN.

RUG AND CARPET CLEANING MACHINE.

APPLICMION-HLED JUNE 2. i915. RENEWED MAY 31,1911.

Patented July 8, 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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L. HO LLMAN.

RUG AND CARPET CLEANING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 2. 1915, RENEWED MAY 3x \917.

1 ,308,785. Patented J uly 8, 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

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r 66 35? 557' n A A U U 4 J mfl W LOUIS HOLLMAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RUG AND CARPET CLEANING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 8, 1919.

Application filedJ'une 2, 1916, Serial No. 101,246. Renewed May 31, 1917. Serial No. 172,078.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS HOLLMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Rug and Carpet Cleanin Machine, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to rug cleaning machines in which the rug is slowly drawn through the machine in which it is successively presented to, a mechanical beater, a scrubbing brush, a rinsing water, a squeegee and a wringer, and the objects of my improvements are first, to beat, scrub, wash, clean, rinse and wring rugs; second, to make the different parts of the machine adjustable to different sized rugs third, to make a machine capable of renovating any size rug; fourth, to make a simple, efficient, strong and durable machine and other features to glecome apparent from the description to fol- In a machine of this class it is desirable to feed the rugs to the machine in a continuous succession while the machine is in constant operation; to make the manual handling of the rugs easy; to do the work of renovating thoroughly and to have the rugs delivered from the machine in as dry condition as possible. All these desirable features are at tained by the use of my invention which comprises two endless chains to which rug holding bars can easily be attached. The chains are guided to travel in such a course that each rug fed to the machine is first pre sented in a right side down position to the beater, next it is presented in a right side up position consecutively to the rotary scrub brushes, the rinsing water and the scraper or squeegee and finally between spring pressed wringer rollers.

To describe my invention so that others versed in the art to which it pertains can make and use the same I have illustrated it on the accompanying three sheets of drawings forming a part of this specification in which:

Figure 1, is a side elevation of a machine embodyin my invention; Fig. 2, is a vertical centra section of the same; Fig. 3, is a detail plan view partly broken away showing the rug holding bar and its connection to the chain; Fi 4, is a detail view of the chain link to whlch the rug holding bar is connected; Fig. 5, is a plan view of the rug supporting screen with two shut-oil covers in position; Fig. 6, is a plan view of one of the shut-off covers removed from the machine; Fig. 7, is a plan view of the liquid cleaning compound pipes used in the machine and Fig. 8, is a diagrammatic plan view of the squeegee employed in the machine.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throu hout the several views.

The frame 0 the machine consists principally of the two side frames 9 and 10 which are spaced apart a suflicient distance to permit the largest sized rug to pass there-between, usually about thirteen feet apart. Before feeding the rug to the machine, its forward edge is securely fastened to the holding bar 11, see Fig. 3, by forcing the sharpened ends of the hooks 12, throu h the edge of the rug. The bar 11 is provi ed at each end with a slot 13 arranged to receive the cooperating lug 14:, on a link of the chain 15, of which there are two, one adjacent the frame 9 and one adjacent the frame 10. Both chains 15 are endless and extend respectively over the sprocket wheels 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 rigidly mounted on shafts 25, 26, 27, 2s, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33 respectively. Said chains pass from sprocket wheels 24 back to sprocket wheels 16 and thus complete the loop. Immediately in front of the sprocket wheels 16 an idle roller 34: is mounted in the frames 9 and 10. All the shafts 25 to 33 span the space between the frames 9 and 10 and have their ends journaled in same. As clearly seen in Fig. 2, if a bar 11, having a rug attached thereto, is connected to the chains 15 at the shaft 25, the rug will be pulled in an upward zigzag course i. e. horizontally to the left from shaft 25, around shaft 26, thence u wardly around shaft 27 thence to the rig t on a slight incline around shaft 28, thence upwardly around shaft 31, thence horizontally to the left over shaft 32, thence downward to a point where the bar 11 is unfastened from chains 15 by an attendant, and either piled or folded on table 35 or attached to the winding drum 36 mounted in suitable brackets 37 integral with frames 9 and 10. The winding drum 36 is constantly rotated non-clockwise by being operatively connected to shaft 32 by means of a belt 88 and suitable pulley wheels.

The shaft 32 is constantly driven nonclockwise through the medium of worm gears 39 rigidly mounted an than 32 and worms 4O rigidly mounted on shafts 41, having their upper ends journaled in bearings 42 adjustably mounted on frames 9 and 10. The lower ends of shafts 41 are journaled in bearings 48, also secured to frames 9 and 10, and have bevel gears 44 rigidly mounted thereon. The bevel gears 44 are in constant mesh with the small bevel gears 45 rigidly mounted on the driving shaft 46, mounted in bracket bearings 47 se cured to frames 9 and 10.

The driving shaft 46 is driven by any desirable power.

Midw y between shaft 25 and shaft 26 is provid a heavy wire screen 48 over which the rugs are arranged to travel slowly. Directly above the screen 48 is a rotatable shaft 49 journaled in frames 9 and 10 and provided with a plurality of flexible heaters 50, which are so arranged that they will contact with and beat the rugs while passing over screen 48 when the shaft 49 is rotated. The shaft 49 is constantly rotated by means of bein operatively connected to the driving shaft 6 by means of belt 51 and suitable belt wheels. A dust and dirt hopper 52 is arranged directly below the screen 48 into which the dirt and dust heat from the rugs falls. A suction fan 53 is Provided to draw all the dirt and dust from hopper 52 and force it out through the discharge 54. The fan 53 is driven by means of a belt 55 and suitable ulley wheels secured on the fan shaft and on shaft 46. The rugs are pulled into the machine over the idle roller 34, and in front of and back of the screen 48, are supported on suitable shelves or tables 56 provided for the purpose.

Between shafts 27 and 28 is provided a supporting board or table 57 in a plane parallel to the chains 15 over which the rugs pass. Above the upper half of the board or table57 are arranged two rotatable scrubbing brushes 58, which are mounted on suitable shafts 59, journaled in the free ends of arms ,60' rigidly mounted on rock shafts 61 mounted in frames 9 and 10, so that the brushes 58 normally rest by gravity on the board or table 57, and can be lifted upward away from same in arcs about shafts 61 by means of manipulating the handles 62, integlral with arms 60.

A quantity of liquid cleansing compound is supplied to the brushes 58 by means of the erforated pipes 63 arranged above said brus es and parallel to the axesthereof. The liquid cleansing compound is sup-plied from a tank not shown, through pipes 64 to pipes '63. As clearly shown in 7, the pipes 63 are arranged in sets of three for each brush 58 the longest one extending substantially from frame 9 to frame 10, another extendin about two thirds said distance'and the t ird one extending; about one third the distance from frame 9 toframe 10.

If a narrow rug is being renovated the valve 65 controlling the flow to the shortest pipe 63 is opened; if a wider rug is being passed through the machine the valve 65 controlling the flow to the next longer pipe 63 is opened and if the largest size rug is being renovated the valve 65 cont rolling the flow to the longest pipe 63 is opened. The purpose obviously is to not waste an unnecessary amount of the liquid cleansing compound.

Similarly as shown in Figs. 5, and 6, removable covers 66 of different lengths are provided for placin over the screen 48 when renovating rugs of ifferent sizes, so that an unnecessary amount of air suction created by the fan is not wasted.

Immediately to the right of the brushes 58, is a perforated pipe 67 which supplies clear water to the surface of the rugs for rinsin purposes, the water being supplied to sai pipe 67 through pipe 68 leading from some source of supply and controlled by valve 69. In actual practice I prefer to provide a shutoff valve in the liquid cleansing compound supply pipe which will be automatically opened when a rug is passing under the brushes 58 and will be automaticallyclosed when there is no rug passing under the brushes 58. Likewise I will also arrange a shut-off valve in the water suppl pipe which will be automatically opened when a rug is passing under the rinsing pipe 67.

Immediately to the right of the rinsing pipe 67 is arranged a squeegee 70 to squeeze and scra e the surface of the rugs as they pass un er same. The squeegee. 70 is built up of a plurality of blades 71 as clearly shown in Fig. 8. which slightly overlap one another and set at an angle with respect to the edges of the rug so that all the scrapings will be conducted oil at one side of the rug. The supporting board 57 is provided with vertical sides 72 to'form a wide trough for the purpose of conducting all the washings and water into the transverse trough 72' at the lower end of board 57 from whence it passes down the drain pipe 73. Each blade 71 of the squeegee 70 is pivotally mounted by means of brackets 74 on a transverse shaft 7 5 secured to the side frames 9 and 10. The brackets 74 are provided with upward extensions above the shaft 75 to the free end of which one end of coiled s rings 76 are attached. The other end 0 each s rin 76 is attached to the transverse shaft 7 secured to side frames 9 and 10. Thus the squeegee blades 71 are constant pressed against the surface of the rug passing under the same.

While the squeegee 70 serves to scrape and clean the surface of the-rug I prefer to pass the ru between two rollers to wring the water t erefrom, and to this end I mount a roller 78 on shaft 28, around which the rug passes in its course through the machine as above described, and a swinging roller 79 is rotatably mounted in the free ends of arms 80 loosely mounted on the extremities of shaft 29 so that the roller 79 normally rests against the roller 7 8 by gravity. To increase the yielding ressure of roller 79 against roller 78 a coi ed sprin 81 is connected between each arm 80 an the frames 9 and 10. A screw 82 may be provided to adjust the pressure of roller 7 9 against roller 78.

The brushes 58 as described are rigidly mounted on shafts 59, and the shafts 59 are rotated by means of gears 83 meshing with gears 84 mounted on shafts 61. The shafts 61 in turn are driven by means of sprocket chains 85 and sprocket wheels 86 operatively connectin the same to driving shaft as. Each han le 62 used to lift the brushes 58 is provided with a hook 87 which is arranged to be placed into any link of the coiiperating chain 88 connected to frames 9 and 10, for the purpose of holding one or both brushes 58 up off of the rug or carpet.

The drum or reel 36 onto which the rugs or carpet may be wound is made removable from its operating position by means of longitudinally slidable clutch members mount ed in the center of the hubs of the belt wheels over which the belts 38 travel.

It will be understood that the size, form and arrangement of the parts may be modified without in the least departing from the scope of my invention.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a device of the class described, a suitable frame having end uprights, a horizontal platform arranged between the uprights near the bottom, an inclined platform between the uprights above said horizontal platform, a third platform between the uprights above the inclined platform, said first named platform having a portion formed of wire netting, a hopper below said Wire screen, means for causing air suction in said hopper, a rotating scrubbing brush arranged on said second named inclined platform, a p urality of sprocket wheels mounted on said uprights, endless chains arranged to travel over said sprocket wheels, means connected to said endless chains for carrying the article to be cleaned in a flat condition over the first named platform, thence over the second named inclined platform and thence over the third named latform and means for driving said scrub ing brush and said chains in unison.

2. In a device of the class described, a suitable frame having end uprights, a horizontal platform of wire screen arranged between the uprights near the bottom, a hopper below said platform, means for causing air suction in said-hopper, means for covermg a portion of said hopper, an inclined platform between the uprights above said horizontal platform, a third platform between the uprights above the inclined platform, a rotating scrubbing brush arranged on said second named inclined platform, a plurality of pairs of sprocket wheels mounted on said uprights, endless chains arranged to travel over said sprocket wheels, means connected to said endless chains for carrying the article to be cleaned in a flat condition over the first named platform, thence over the second named inclined platform and thence over the third named platform and means for driving said scrubbing brush and said chains in unison.

3. In a device of the class described, a suitable frame having end uprights, a horizontal platform of wire screening arranged between the end frames near the bottom, an inclined platform between the uprights above said horizontal. platform, a third platform, between the uprights above the said inclined platform, a hopper below said first named platform, means for causing air suc tion in said hopper, a heater arranged between said uprights above said first named platform, a scrubbing brush arranged on said second named inclined platform, a plurality of pairs of sprocket wheels mounted on said uprights, endless chains arranged to travel over said sprockets, means connected to said endless chains for carrying the ar ticle to be cleaned in a flat condition over the first named platform underneath the beater, thence over the second named inclined platform and thence over the third named platform and means for driving said beater, said scrubbing brush and said chains in unison.

4. In a device of the class described, a suitable frame having end uprights, a horizontal platform arranged between the uprights near the bottom, an inclined platform between the uprights above said horizontal platform, a third platform between the uprights above the inclined platform, said first named platform having a portion formed of wire netting, a rotating scrubbing brush arranged on said second named inclined platform, a plurality of sprocket wheels mounted on said uprights, endless chains arranged to travel over said sprocket wheels, means connected to said endless chains for carrying the article to be cleaned in a flat condition over the first named platform, thence over the second named platform and means for driving said scrubbing brush and said chains in unison.

5. In a device of the class described, a suitable frame having end uprights, a platform comprising wire screening arranged between said uprights near the bottom, a second platform arranged between the uprights above said. first named platform, a rotating beater arranged between the uprights above the wire screening of the first named platform, a rotating scrubbing brush arranged between the uprights above said second named platform, a squeegee arranged between the uprights above the second named platform, a pair of wringer rollers arranged between the uprights above the second named platform, a plurality of sprocket wheels mounted on said uprights, endless chains arranged to travel about said sprocket Wheels, means detachably connected to said chains for feeding the article to be cleaned in a flat condition over the first named platform, and thence over the second 15 named platform and means for driving said heater, said scrubbing brush, said wringer rollers, and said chains in unison.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name in presence of a subscrib- 20 ing witness this 26th day of May, 1916 at Chicago, Illinois.

LOUIS HOLLMAN.

Witness:

Rronn; J. JAOKER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0." 

